UT's Center for Sustainable Development held a symposium on Friday featuring university professors, students and faculty.


The symposium, part of a two-day event sponsored by CSD, the Campus
Environmental Center and other on-campus organizations, covered new
ideas for enhancing UT's research for sustainable development and
technology.


Throughout the event, audience members were given hand-held clickers
and were asked to vote on issues such as the likelihood of student
contribution to sustainability projects on campus.


Topics discussed at the symposium ranged from discussions of on-campus
horticulture, solar panel adoption and the reduction of lab chemicals
and equipment waste.


In one presentation MBA students Max Brodsky, Daniel Schreiber and Luis
Tejerina described the process of working with Austin Energy to map the
market for solar panels in community.


"We looked at this problem. We told them what is driving the market, and we gave them a roadmap," said Schreiber.


All three students are part of the MBA+LEADERSHIP PROGRAM at the Red McCombs School of Business.


Engineering professor Richard Corsi discussed the indoor pollution
potential of eco-friendly products. His study found that many green
products such as paint and linoleum react with ozone trapped inside
buildings to create toxic by-products indoors.The knowledge gained
through his research is being used to create ways to remove such
by-products from the air in buildings.


Assistant Director of Environmental Health and Safety Dennis Nolan
presented his research on recycling lab equipment and the use of
different chemicals at the university. He argued that both of these
will save the university and its researchers money.


Professor for materials conservation Frances Gale, another symposium
speaker, researched building preservation methods on campus alongside
students from her class. They evaluated the condition and the effects
past preservation treatments of campus buildings such as Battle Hall,
the Flawn Academic Center and the Main Building. As a result of their
research, professor Gale has begun working with UT to create a
systematized maintenance of campus buildings.


"We believe that maintenance is a main component of sustainability," Gale said.


Ladybird Johnson Center employees Alice Gerhart and Philip Hawkins
presented the layout of a new "Academic Sustainability Catalog." The
online catalog contains information about the university's current
sustainability research, available classes and contact information for
professors specializing in areas of preservation and sustainability.


Many of the presentations were part of ongoing projects at CSD such as
the Pecan Street Project which is devoted to creating more sustainable
ways of energy consumption in the community.

photo by Mary Vo